It's all in the biceps

Another amazing weekend of hard work added to the books. I am hoping by the end of the this home renovation I am going to have some serious arm muscle ;)  

Plan:

- remove 2 wood beams and replace with 2 steel beams

- remove downstairs sliding door and windows

- insert new French doors and insert 2 windows(re-using the ones from upstairs)

- remove sliding doors from upstairs level and insert new French door 

- clean up the basement and take all garbage to dump

- burn all the junk wood from the new house that has been collected 

- drive to buffalo 1.5 hrs. each way and order windows from Home Depot(yes I know this sounds crazy but we are saving around $2500.00) since we don't pay for gas and drive on vegetable oil it is totally worth it! 

DO YOU THINK WE GOT IT ALL DONE???

READ MORE TO FIND OUT :) 

The beams we were installing were 300lb beams replacing the old sagging wood beams. There were 3 of us. Let me repeat 3 of us....1,2,3 not 4 or 5 like I think we should have had. 

Old Beam 1:

New Beam 1:

Beam 2:

Branko who is 6'3 and very strong, his friend who I believe is 5'9 and pretty strong, and then me(extra help just in case) 5'7 and not so strong(that's an exaggeration...I am pretty strong but not compared to those boys). Attempt 1 failed we couldn't get it above our waists and the height that we needed to reach was about 6'2. Attempt 2 was also a fail and had me in a state of fear where I was sure the beam was going to come crashing down on my head. I'm sure I over exaggerated my fear because I am a worrier but none the less I was almost in tears. Our 3rd attempt was a success. After taking a break to breath and think about a better strategy we finally got that sucker in its place. 

PHEW right we are done!!! 

Not so much....we have one more longer more heavier beam to install. The second beam went much smoother with some pre-game plan ideas, it was up in no time. 

Next up remove the sliding door and windows which was a pretty easy task build a new frame for the door since the old one was rotted out. By 10pm at night Branko and I finally finished up our day. 

A view of the upper level and lower level:

We were able to finish installing the French doors downstairs, remove the windows from upstairs and relocate them to the downstairs spot where we wanted them. These windows were fairly new so we didn't want to just junk them. Since we were ordering all new windows for the upper level we decided that we could re-use those 2 windows for the lower level. The walk-out from the upper deck and the walk-out from the lower level are identical. So we were able to use the windows which was great! $400 in savings! :) 

While the guys were removing the sliding door downstairs I was able to clean out most of the basement. We had at least 2 truck loads of stuff that was left from the previous owners that we needed to clean out. So I kept myself busy piling up the garbage bags and loading up the the truck. 

On Sunday we made our trip to Buffalo with a stop at my parents for breakfast! It was nice to see them chit chat for a bit and then head over the border. We only needed to go to 3 stores(autozone, wal-mart, and home depot). Once we were done at Home Depot around 1pm we headed back home. Another stop at my parents to pick up some stuff(YAY for fresh eggs and brand new tri-pod for my camera) and then home bound. We arrived home around 4:30pm and of course headed over to the new house. We knew we had a few more things we wanted to get done before the weekend was over. We were able to finish burning almost all of the wood, fully installing the windows downstairs and levelling them off properly and also making an action plan for the week ahead of us. I usually get home around 5pm and Branko around 5:30pm. This allows us to eat a quick dinner and head over to the new house for a couple of hours each night. 

Our new windows will be here in 2 weeks time so we have a lot of work we need to get done before they arrive. 

So for the final results:

Plan:

- remove 2 wood beams and replace with 2 steel beams

- remove downstairs sliding door and windows

- insert new French doors and insert 2 windows(re-using the ones from upstairs)

- remove sliding doors from upstairs level and insert new French door 

- clean up the basement and take all garbage to dump (well we finished 1/2 of this job still have about another truck load of garbage)

- burn all the junk wood from the new house that has been collected  (another small fire will be needed tonight to finish this off) being the paranoid person that I am I didn't want to leave the house with the fire burning at all so we stopped to let the fire die down)

- drive to buffalo hrs. each way and order windows from Home Depot(yes I know this sounds crazy but we are saving around $2500.00) since we don't pay for gas and drive on vegetable oil it is totally worth it! 

I am so excited the windows are ordered!!! They are going to be stunning and make such a drastic difference to the house. The 2 week count down is on until they arrive and we get to install them. Until then we plan to remove the rest of the garbage and install the French doors on the upper level. In the next 2 weeks we also plan to remove all of the old windows(6 of them) and frame everything for the new windows. Almost all of the windows are going to be larger so we have to build new frames. We will just put some plastic wrap in the empty spots for now and seal the open windows until the new ones arrive. This way we will be prepared and window installing will be able to be completed in one day! 

On a side note we had a visitor this weekend as well:

She had a field day playing around the creek in our backyard at the old house:

I also did some more organizing with the mason jars I found at our new house:

This weekend is Mother's Day so Sunday will be spent with my little sister and mom. We are taking her to the Cheesecake Factory in Buffalo! 

Looking forward to the week ahead of us and the work we have planned!! 

Plumbing!!!!

Who knew we would be so excited to have the plumbing started! This weekend was a huge success. It started off with me having Friday off. (insert happy smile) I had some errands to run, doctor's appointment and all that fun stuff. Saturday morning we were up bright and early. Our friend met us with his plumber friend at our new house around 9am. Everything was measured out for the new washroom and the kitchen. We made some minor changes. The new washroom was going to have a standing shower and a bathtub and no window. While the guys were gone to purchase all the supplies needed to do the plumbing work, Branko and I made a decision on some bathroom changes. We eliminated the standing shower and decided to add a large window in the washroom instead. This will allow us to have a larger vanity, more space in the washroom and some much needed natural lighting. In the future when our master bedroom addition is completed the en-suite washroom will have a large standing shower and a free standing tub. 


It felt really good to have a large job like that out of the way. 


While the guys were working on the plumbing work I was sure to keep myself busy for most of the day. I used the shop-vac to start cleaning the floors and all of the corners of the house. Because it had not been lived in for so long there were many dead bugs lying around. If anybody knows me they know I am terrified by any kind of bug. So I was pretty happy to start getting rid of those little creatures. 


Something else that I kept myself busy with was testing out paint for a feature wall. In previous posts I talked about an idea that was given to us from our designer to leave one wall of the red cedar panelling and paint it a unique colour like black. She also suggested we leave the wood railing in for now and match that to the paint colour to the wall. 

You can see the arrow pointing to the wall that we are going to paint. I did a test run on some other panelling that is still up and we thought it looked pretty unique. The paint will be a semi-gloss and not a flat black so it has some sheen to it. If worse comes to worse and we really don't like it we can remove the panelling and add dry-wall as we had originally planned. 

What I also wanted to do was hang 2 large paintings with quotes on them on that wall. Insert help of little sister ;) She is the artistic one who isn't shy of telling me the truth. I am hoping she likes my idea or is able to run with it and figure out something better. 

I have already sent her a picture of the 2 paintings I want to hang(which she will have to make :). 

One of the painting says "Grow old with me the best has yet to be" These words have special meaning to us. They were on our invitations for our wedding and was also used in our wedding album. I want to be able to hang them just the way they are in the picture.

This weekend we have some more plans for the new house...stay tuned! 

A post of just pictures :)

Lately I have been thinking about the new house more and more. I just can't wait for that day when everything is done. Brand new hard wood floors, that beautiful grey kitchen that I have been dreaming about and the huge windows installed covering the majority of the front of the house. That day when we can sit on the porch on soak in the peace and quiet and the sun. That day will come soon I know I just have to be patient. 


So today is just a post of pictures because all I do all day long is visualize what the place will look like when it's all done and how far we have come. 

"The backyard"

"The front yard"

"The old kitchen space"

"The new kitchen space" - as you can see we gutted the wall to the left in the picture. The kitchen will stretch out along that back wall, the existing window will be replaced with a larger window. The fridge will be hidden in that nook area with pantry style cupboards beside them. An island is also going to be installed. 

"The grey kitchen I dream about"

"The dining area" - the windows are also being replaced here. One very large window will cover the existing window area and all the way down the floor. A new harvest dining table will sit here. That one wall with the red cedar is still up in the air. It was suggested that we do something bold like paint it black or white and match the railing. Thoughts people???

"The living room"

"The now more open living room" - the wall is gone on the left side of this picture. A new patio door is being inserted, the walls will be drywalled and painted to make the place look more open and warm and less cabin style home. 

I will end this off with some puppy love. We think Boss is going to love his new home. 

Hope you all enjoy the gallery! 

One step at a time....

This weekend was sort of a write-off. Branko needed to fix his car properly and I had to stick around in case he needed a second hand or the truck to run to the store. The weather factor didn't really help either. 


I thought I would show off some pictures of the windows and doors I painted . I am very happy with the outcome of painting them black. Even though it was a bold choice it looks much better then the ugly green that it was before. 

Goodbye ugly green windows! 

This is the back of our old house, the deck will be painted once the weather clears up. 

Other things I was up to this weekend was organizing! I was able to donate 3 bags of clothes and also started working on storing all of my pantry goods in sealed jars. Once I have them all in containers I will go over to Staples and pick up the new Martha Stewart labels http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=,5080&webid=366170&affixedcode=WW

I picked up my jars at the dollar store and Wal-mart. Here are some of my favourites...shredded coconut, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and dark choc chips :)  

A couple of other things that I have been up to is trying to get back into squeezing some exercising into my hectic lifestyle. I have never been a fan of  the daily gym grind so I always have to think of other ways to get some healthy movement into my daily activities. Last year I took some awesome boot camp classes with http://www.bootycampfitness.com/ my instructor Lisa was a great motivator and really worked us hard. I would love to join up again but the only class I could take was the one closest to work that left me sitting around after work for 2 hours waiting for class to start. (on a side note if you want to try out a boot camp this is the one!!!). I have 1 hour lunch break so I decided from a tip of another co-worker to do laps around the underground parking garage. It started off with 2 easy laps on the first day and by the 3rd day I included a 3rd lap(totalling just under 3KM) and also climbing the stairs at work. I try to get in at least 13-15 flights of stairs in one day. 

And now for a couple of shout out's to some other great blogs/webpages I love to follow. 

http://ohsheglows.com is freaking amazing!! Her website is all about vegan cooking and even though I am not a vegan I have found her recipes so helpful with my healthy eating and incorporating more veggies! Check out her Endurance Crackers and  Whole Foods Layered Salad With Oil-Free Orange Ginger Dressing!Definitely 2 of my favourites!  

http://www.trulyjess.com/ I came across Jess's website through twitter. She talks about healthy weight loss and so many other things. Her #OOTD(outfit of the day) posts are also fantastic(although not helping our bank account ;). She is truly inspiring and for anybody that struggles with weight management then she is one to follow. I just recently started following her and already came to realize how REAL she is. Oh by the way she is also a trainer for booty camp fitness and does some great videos for working out at home using the same boot camp style work outs. 

And of course my fellow blogger http://bringingfurmanhome.blogspot.ca/. Trissy and I met through our work volunteer program(yes on top of working we volunteer 100hrs of our own time to charity events and work related conferences.) She talks about family, life struggles and of course on the process of bringing Furman home :) 

Wow, I believe I went a little bit off topic today but this renovating project that Branko and I are venturing into is all about balancing our daily lives and building our home which we are both very excited about! 

I am hoping that in the next 2 weeks we will be able to get back to the new house, we made a visit on the weekend with Branko's parents to show his mom what we completed so far and being there just made me more excited about completing the project and enjoying our time with friends and family in our new home. 

Until next time let's all try to get through the next 2 days of crappy weather and hope the weekend is bright and sunny! 

No resting here....

Ahhhhhh another weekend has passed us and a busy one it was! The weather outlook called for rain all weekend so the original plans were to head over to the new house or work on my car :( (sadly it is still not running the greatest). Saturday came around the sun was shining so the plans quickly changed. We need as much good weather as we can get to prepare our old home for sale. So we used the opportunity to get working outside. Branko finally completed the new shingles on the roof and I painted a couple more windows outside. While I went grocery shopping, he was able to transplant 5 trees to a new spot to make the front yard more appealing and so here it is after what feels like a hundred hours of labour our front yard is finally shaping up to look real nice! (It's kind of sad in some way that we are leaving after all of this hard work) 

This area of the yard used to about 30 ugly pine trees, last year when we started this project we didn't ever think we would be moving away so we wanted the front yard to be me appealing. We think the outcome is great and hope whoever the new owners will be are going to appreciate all of the hard work that was done. 


Sunday I had a family function to attend and Branko decided to stay home to get some more work done. We still needed to rake that entire area and clean out all of the small rocks so that the grass could grow properly and then seed the area. I came home around 5:30pm and Branko had been working away all day so as soon as I got home I changed into my work clothes and went out to help. Let me tell you, I am not sure how he did this work all day by himself. After 2 hours of working with him my entire body was aching. I was glad I was able to help though, we chatted throughout the 2 hours and I told him about the family function and he talked about his visit with the neighbours. The time sure flew by! 


I would never have thought in a million years that I would be doing this type of "country girl" outdoor work. I really hate bugs. But I can see myself changing more and more everyday! Seeing the completed work come together is really rewarding and knowing you didn't have to pay somebody to do the work for you feels even better. 


PS: I still love my shopping so I haven't fully converted. :) 


Here are some pictures of us doing hard labour! 

The weekend is over but the hard work is definitely not over. We have another full week ahead of us of hard work planned. I am hoping to get a second coat of paint on the windows and Branko will probably work on the yard some more. 

Until next weekend have a great week!! 

April 11th....

Today is April 11th which is my progress update on our home renovation project.  Please keep in mind we are renovating 2 homes. The new one which we plan to move into and live there "forever" and the old one which we plan to sell. Last week we set a big goal for ourselves to have lots of the work completed this weekend. Considering it was Easter Weekend and we had family plans for Good Friday and Easter Sunday we were actually able to get a lot of work done. 


Here is our list from last week:


Wood staked behind the garage(this wood is about 3ft high)
- Dirt moved from the front lawn to the back of the garage (there is about 2 truck loads of dirt)-
- Lawn levelled and seeded (almost 1 acre)
- Plant trees on the front lawn (4 trees to plant)- 3 Stumps removed and burned 
- Deck repaired and stained 
- All trim in the house completed
 - Roof Shingles replaced - 
Bushes planted, flower beds cleaned (we have 6 flower beds)


Not too bad!!!! Well we completed almost all of these tasks but not fully. LOL 


The wood behind the garage is almost all stacked, there is about 1 bucket of dirt left from the front lawn. The 3 stumps are all gone! The roof shingles are almost done :( this took up most of the weekend which was not anticipated. I believe there are a few sections remaining that needs to be done. The flower beds have been cleaned out, I just need to pull some bushes that died from last year. The ground is still really solid so I am thinking maybe another week or 2 and I should be able to pull them out. 


I was able to also paint 3 windows and the back porch door. Had the weather been nice yesterday we would have gotten so much more done. The windows on the outside were this ugly green so we decided to paint them black. They look so much better and we are really happy with the outcome. 


I am hoping the weather this weekend is going to be better with at least some sun so we can get more outside work completed. The quicker we can get this house completed the sooner we can get to the fun project in our new home! 


The Easter weekend was great as usual. We had a nice dinner with Branko's family on Good Friday at his parents place with his brother/gf and 2 of there cousins. Easter Sunday was spent with my parents, brother/wife(her parents), and my younger sister. My mom made obscene amounts of food as usual which was great because we had left overs for 2 days which meant no cooking for me! 


Hope everybody had a great long weekend! Until next time..... 


Happy Home Renovator

Never a dull moment....

I haven't updated the blog in a while only because we haven't been to the new house in weeks. I decided it is not really fare to give all of this attention to the new house and I should talk a bit about the old house. 

This morning I got an email from the hubby and it was sort of a "to do" list for what needs to be completed: 

Wednesday April 11th we should have the following done:

- Wood staked behind the garage(this wood is about 3ft high)
- Dirt moved from the front lawn to the back of the garage (there is about 2 truck loads of dirt)
- Lawn levelled and seeded (almost 1 acre)
- Plant trees on the front lawn (4 trees to plant)
- 3 Stumps removed and burned
- Deck repaired and stained
- All trim in the house completed
- Roof Shingles replaced
- Bushes planted, flower beds cleaned (we have 6 flower beds)


Then all that is left to do:

- Finish the garage
- Redo the driveway in clear gravel
- Paint the windows on the house
- Fireplace
- Chimney from the outside 

Normally my reaction would be WTF!!! This will never get done by April 11th(7 days away) but if I know my husband any better it will definitely all be done. We have Good Friday, Easter Monday and Tues off. Our progress has been outstanding considering we have full time jobs and have only been working in the evenings and weekends. 

I'm going to leave it at that today, I will update the progress next week! Wish me luck!!!